There was a lot of geometry in the form of golf’s standard scoring of circles for birdies and squares for bogeys among the three low cards following the first round of the American Junior Golf Association Junior Players Championship on Friday at the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass.
Take Jake Albert of Blacksburg, Va., the first of the three players to post a 3-under 69. Albert logged four birdies, an eagle at No. 9 and three bogeys on his first 10 holes, then negotiated the rest of his round level.
Mason Howell of Thomasville, Ga., started his adventures at the par-4 sixth hole with a birdie. Over an 11-hole stretch, he had five birdies, two bogeys and four pars.
And Logan Reilly of Lovettsville, Va., had his fun on the final 10 holes, beginning with a 10-foot birdie putt at No. 9. He had five birdies, two bogeys and three pars and got his score to 4-under by draining a 20-foot birdie putt at the 17th hole’s Island Green.
But he leaked his tee shot right at No. 18 and eventually bogeyed to fall back into the tie with Albert, his future teammate at Auburn, and Howell.
So why all the circles and squares?
“You’ve got to play smart off the tees,” said Reilly, who is 20th on the AJGA Rolex Rankings. “If you get offline quickly, the rough is there and it’s hard to judge how the ball will come out. But if you’re in the fairway, you can attack the course.”
The combination of playing that guessing game off the tees and out of the rough, and the nearly windless, hot conditions posed a challenge to the field of 78 which is one of the strongest in the history of the tournament.
Only 12 players broke par, eight more matched the par of 72 and 10 players failed to break 80, including U.S. Junior Amateur champion Trevor Gutschewski.
Miles Russell optimistic after closing birdie
The first-round scoring average of 75.445 is one reason why defending champion Miles Russell of Jacksonville Beach is confident that his opening 74, which included five bogeys but a 5-foot birdie putt at No. 18 to make lunch taste a lot better, isn’t that daunting a score from which to recover.
“It really wasn’t too bad,” said Russell, the current AJGA points leader who became the first resident of the First Coast to win the Junior Players last year. “I got a couple of unlucky breaks at the wrong time. Other than that it was fine. This course will bite you when you hit a bad shot. And I got one good hole at the last so hopefully that will keep me going through the night.”
Which two area players had chances to lead?
Phillip Dunham of Ponte Vedra Beach (72), who was second to Russell in the Junior Players last year, was the low First Coast player in a tie for 13th. Canadian Amateur champion Tyler Mawhinney (73) of Fleming Island tied for 21st, Jackson Byrd (74) of St. Simons Island, Ga., was with Russell in a tie for 28th, Lucas Gimenez (75) of Jacksonville tied for 38th and Ambrose Kinnare (76) of St. Augustine tied for 44th.
Dunham and Gimenez, playing in the same group, both at their chances at finishing at or closer to the top.
Dunham made a spectacular birdie at the par-5 16th hole, pitching over the large bunker on the left-front of the green, between two trees, and onto the green from 3 feet away; then landed his tee shot at No. 17 6 feet from the hole, draining the putt to get to 2-under and at the time, one shot off the lead.
But the lefthander sliced his tee shot at No. 18 into the water and had to drop on the forward tee. He punched an iron shot through the fairway and near a tree, forcing him to pitch out on his fourth shot. He landed his fifth shot 8 feet from the hole and missed for double bogey.
Gimenez was in even better shape. His iron game was sharp, setting up short birdie putts at Nos. 1, 3, 9, 10 and 11. He then dropped a 13-foot birdie putt at No. 13 and was 4-under, with a one-shot lead.
However, he bogeyed Nos. 14 and 15, put shots in the water at Nos. 16 and 17, resulting in double-bogeys, and bogeyed the last to play his final five holes at 7-over.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Three tied for Junior Players lead; defending champion Miles Russell 5 back
